28 February 2007

Risk Hazekamp is an artist based in Rotterdam who works primarilywith photography and video. In her work, the language of Hollywoodis directly engaged. Often the works take the issue of gender by thehorns, quite literally in some cases since the images of “the West”,cowboys and all the baggage that they carry in terms of gender andmedia constructions of gender, are prevalent.

In works that use the figure, disturbingly familiar clothing and landscapeto deconstruct –or perhaps reconstruct- the idealised images of malenessand femaleness, Risk’s work often exists in a state of ambivalent“femanliness”. Is she seeking to attain the perfect image of a lesbianMarlboro woman with tinges of a female James Dean? Or is she askingus to think about how Hollywood manipulates us? And does the bullfighterimagery challenge the sexist swagger of Hemingway or reflect a blatantadmiration? Sometimes it is difficult to tell and perhaps one does not needto since therein lies the power of the work to arrest.

In more recent works, the issue of gender and personal identity is tackledeven more directly as bearded androgens –she has moved into using modelsin addition to casting herself in her work- populate portraiture, video andwhat appear to be stills from films. Interestingly enough, whereas the earlierwork that uses the language of Hollywood and Risk’s apparent(and perhaps desired) resemblance to a young James Dean, the new workshave a strong European cinema feeling to them. “Giant” (2001) pulls nopunches in referencing a mainstream Hollywood classic whereas“Liberté Pour Tous” (2005) could be a still from a cult French filmthat never got made.

It is not necessarily pedantic to insist that these works are much moreabout the relationship between personal identity and gender than aboutsexual identity. Of course, sexuality is a key aspect of personal identity.However, whereas artists like Del LaGrace Volcano have trod similarground in terms of content, these works do not shock and amaze becauseof what someone might do with her body, but far more who she might“be” deep within herself.

To You who posted a comment , I really did appreciate this very much,all these comments have given me new inspiration to continue my work.I hope to be able to show you more of my photography in a near future.

Bart Pogoda. 30 years old photographer from Poland. He visited over 60 countries. It was extremely hard to choose some set of his works to present in Fblog. We’ve tried together pick something, and here are the photos from Middle America: Nicaragua, Guatemala and Cuba. Bart is in his way to Peru, again :)

Cuba

Havana, Cuba

Havana, Cuba

Todos Santos Cuchumatan, Guatemala

Todos Santos Cuchumatan, Guatemala

Granada, Nikaragua

Antigua, Guatemala

Antigua, Guatemala

J: In which country you feel most comfortable?

Bart: In Poland :)

J: What country would you like to visit the most?

Bart: All those places

J: Is there any dominant topic in your work, what are you looking at visiting the world?